New Taliban diktat asks women TV presenters to cover face; women defy, forced to fall in line next day

Women presenters on Afghanistan's major news channels defied a diktat by the Taliban leadership which asked them to cover their faces while on camera on Saturday.

A day after, however, women TV presenters went on air with their faces covered, saying they were forced to wear it.

Since coming to power, the Taliban have been increasing the restrictions on women. Earlier this month, Afghanistan's supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada issued a diktat for women to be fully covered in public. Another stops women and men from dining together in public, even if they are married.

The Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice's diktat orders authorities to fire women with government jobs failing to follow the dress code. Men with government jobs risk being fired if their wives or sisters don't comply.

Authorities also said that media managers and guardians of defiant women presenters would be liable for penalties.